Promises, Promises (2 Samuel 7)

When I was a crumb-cruncher about 5 years old my family went to Disneyland. At the end of a very long day at the happiest (?) place on earth, us kids asked when we could come back. Off handedly, my dad said we might come back when we are teenagers. What was probably intended by my Dad as a vague possibility along the lines of "maybe someday", we took it as a guarantee, a locked tight contract, signed with blood. Dad promised!!! And we remembered that promise, counting off the years until we could go again to Disneyland. Every few years, the kids would remind mom and dad, check in because maybe they had bought tickets, or made airplane reservations. And when our teen years came and went with no ride on the Matterhorn or Space Mountain there was, shall we say, a bit of a let down.

In 2 Samuel 7, God the Father makes a promise to his child David that his throne and kingdom would be established forever. Vs 11b-16 captures the promise:

The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.

The Least to the Greatest
I love that God chose David to establish an eternal throne. David was the youngest brother in the puny tribe of Judah. He was a scrawny shepherd, picked on and mocked by his family, not the typical training ground for a dynastic ruler. But God anointed the least to be the greatest among men. In vs 8 God makes this point clear:

Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel.

Sheep are numbered among the weakest and dumbest animals on the planet (in fact Team Sheep recently got edged out by both Team Mollusks and Team Slugs in a chess tournament). So having "shepherd for 15 years" on David's resume is not a bonus for his royal career track. But the power of God, exercised by countless miracles and acts of divine sovereignty, elevated this flea-bitten sheep boy to head of an eternal royal dynasty.


A Broken Promise?
Except one thing, doesn't it seem like the whole "kingdom enduring forever" part got dropped? I mean, I don't want to get all technical but I don't see a King ruling in Jerusalem today. And with the destruction of the the Hebrew tribal lineage records in 70 AD along with the temple, even if there were a king on a throne today, we could not be assured that he was the offspring of David. Again, at the risk of being nit-picky, God did promise a throne "forever". Which, I know, is a pretty long time but....ummm.... (cough cough isn't cough happening cough cough)

I imagine David looking down from heaven throughout the course of history and trying to remind God about his promise, like I prodded my parents about Disneyland. David strolls into throne room of heaven, fist bumps the seraphim, sings some choruses of "Holy, Holy, Holy" then takes Jehovah aside and points down to Jerusalem, the City of David. "So, umm, Almighty Lord... I don't want to be a pest, and I know you're fairly busy with a few things on your plate, as you sovereignly guiding the destiny of every atom in the universe. But, well, how about, you know, that "throne forever" thing?"

And a few hundred years later when the Babylonians over ran the Holy Land, David might have slipped a note on God's dinner plate:





Then when the Romans reigned in terror in the City of David, crucified Jesus the Messiah who David thought was to fulfill the promise, and destroyed the temple, David might have glanced across to God and tapped his rolex watch.

As millions of Jews were being fed into gas chambers in WWII did David look to the Heavenly Father with tears streaming down his face?

A Promise Fulfilled (Already, Not Yet)
Yet God is faithful, His word is sure, His promises are not void. The promise to David is one that is fulfilled already and not yet.

Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one who was born in the Tribe of Judah, in the line of David (Matthew 1:2-16). When he walked on earth, he said "The Kingdom of God is near" because he is the King of Kings.

The Old Testament records that the Messiah would sit on David's throne and establish an eternal kingdom. Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum wrote an amazing book called "The Footsteps of the Messiah" that carefully establishes throughout all of scripture the reign of the Messiah past, present and future. Dr. Fruchtenbaum notes two keys passages that help us understand the fulfillment of the promises of God to David. The first is Isaiah 9:6-7:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

The second passage is from Jeremiah 23:5-6:

The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness."

When God promised David an eternal throne, David did not realize that the occupant of that throne would be Mighty God himself! The throne is eternal because the occupant is eternal.

Yet, if we are honest, there is still something of a disappointment that it doesn't seem like Jesus is reigning on earth. The Prince of this World, the devil, often seems to have more rule than Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

In the study of Eschatology, things of the end times, Dr. Gordon Fee of Regents College talks about the "already and not yet" of the kingdom of God. Jesus, the King of Kings, has already been born to this world and came to Jerusalem. But his throne is not yet completely established. He still allows nations and peoples to bring wreckage and ruin. The Messiah has already come in partial fulfillment to the Davidic promises, but has not yet returned a second time for the completion of that fulfillment.

The "already and not yet" of the reign of Jesus is also a reality in the lives of individual Christians. Jesus already has saved me and declared me righteous (justification) but I'm not yet completely made righteous, I still sin. So the Holy Spirit is working in me and is in the process of finishing the salvation (sanctification).

For every frustration and disappointment of sin and rebellion both in this world and in our own lives, we can rest on a great hope that God's promise to David will ultimately be fulfilled, and that is sure.

Luke 1:30-33 is an excellent reminder of the promises that are already and not yet:

But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

So get your bags packed people, we're going to Disneyland!!!!!!!!!

The Sower and the Seed

Parable of the sower and the seed: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23.










Many of us have read the parable of the sower and seed so many times it becomes old hat. For me, the seed is often over looked in the story. I usually focus on myself as the soil, or Jesus as the sower. But the seeds are missed in the story. In life too, seeds are overlooked because they are small and seem insignificant. Seeds are miraculous though. Each one has a storehouse of power and potential that can feed, fuel or shade a nation if nourished. Huge plants can be produced from tiny kernels. Conisder the following for some perspective on this parable of the sower and seeds.

The General Sherman sequoia tree in California is the largest tree in the world, the stats on this monster can give you vertigo:

--The tree is 275' tall
-- 36' diameter at base
-- 103' circumference
-- Weighs 2,100 tons (just the trunk, not including "branches" that are bigger than most trees and even a few NFL players)
-- About 2700 years old! That's back when Internet was still dial up! And when you didn't have to click something to friend somebody.
-- The trunk is 52,000 cubic feet of wood in volume. You could make 1.9 billion tooth picks from the tree! Or 2,100,000 baseball bats!

The astonishing thing is that this mammoth tree started out from a seed about the size of Roosevelt's nose on a dime.










Seeds are miraculous, but start small and are often neglected. Keep this in mind when you read about Jesus and the parable about the sower and his seed in Matthew 13:1-9

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Context:
Before jumping too quickly into the parable, it is interesting to check out the setting. This parable was spoken the SAME DAY that the Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah by committing the unpardonable sin (attributing Jesus' power to Satan, Mtt 12:22-45). This is very important context. He must have been crushed in spirit, so disheartened that His own people rejected Him. He came for the world in general (Jn 3:16) but also the Jews in particular as the promised Messiah and heir to King David's throne. The parable was also followed by the beheading of John the Baptist! The one who Jesus called the greatest among those ever born among men! The bookends to the parable are intense! This is why in vs 1 of Chp 13 he goes to the lake by himself to sit down. He is crushed. He has been rejected. His message of the kingdom and his fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant was just trampled under foot and snatched away by birds like seed fallen on a rush-hour pavement.


The Sower
Vs 4: Is the sower sloppy with his seed? Accidentally spilling some on the path and rocky ground? No, I think he is generous. He is a rich farmer, with seed to spare! Seeds were very valuable and if you were a poor farmer you place each seed individually in good soil. But Jesus is rich with his valuable seed, generously casting his seed out by the handfuls! By the bucketful!


The Seed
The seed is the Word of God (vs 19, technically the "message about the Kingdom"). What do we know about seeds? They are small, so small that by looking at it you'd think that nothing much would come from it. How many people overlook the message of kingdom, or consider God's word to be of little value, a collection of some good teaching but little else? They might even have a Bible, but it sits on a shelf, collects dust. Some people don't realize that the message of the kingdom is nothing short of miraculous and would transform their lives. Even many Christians (and me!!) often overlook the Word of God and it gets shoved near the bottom of the To Do List. And then left off of the list altogether. [Confession: it once took me 6 years to complete my "Bible In One Year" reading plan. Awesome. And not because I was super methodical in my study. It was probably the hay days of The Office, 24, Heroes, and Survivor.]


In order to grow, a seed needs soil, nutrients, water, sun. Seeds are a picture of transformation. They are an image of big things growing out of what seems to be insignificant. They sprout roots, send up a shoot, then branches, then flower, then fruit that contains more seeds. Seeds are a step in generations of fruit, nourishment that gives life. Seeds appear to be dead but they are living. An acorn looks nothing like the oak.

So too with the message of the Kingdom. It appears to be just words, just a book, but those words planted in the right place can grow to be huge, transformational and bearing much fruit! When placed in the right soil, with the right conditions the Word of God can grow and radically change your life. Nobody looking at a sequoia seed can imagine the massive transformation and growth potential. But this is fully within the character of God to use the weak, small and insignificant to accomplish mighty deeds for His kingdom and glory.

Jesus calls the message of the kingdom a secret (Matt 13:11-18). Something that generations of prophets yearned to discover. But in Jesus' day and ours it is a secret out in plain sight. A seed sitting on the soil. Seeds are secrets, unless you have good soil, you'll never know what the seed can fully mean.


The Soil
Jesus says that the soil where the seed falls is the human heart. The heart is the very center of our being, it is our inner most soul. When you love something with your heart you adore it with everything you have. There's nothing you wouldn't do for the sake of the one you love. If you're making a vow, you say, "Cross my heart, hope to die, I swear!". You're saying that all of your honor and integrity is riding on your vow. You've sworn with all your heart.

Our hearts can be in different conditions:
--Beaten and trodden down, hard packed like a road trampled and travelled by thousands of people. Nothing grows on a path, nothing sinks in.
--A rocky place, with some shallow soil but no room for roots to grow deep. Seeds can grow in the crack of a concrete road, but the plant easily withers in tough times.
--Weed choked. With competing invasive plants that steal nutrients, light and water. Blackberry thorns will take over anything in its way and can swallow entire houses if left unchecked.
--Rich, loamy fertile soil. Seeds planted here flourish, grow with deep roots, have no choking weeds, produce lush plants and make a fruitful crops with returns up to 100 fold!

What condition is your heart in? Is it ready to receive the seed and be productive?

There might be thorns that are choking the seed. The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of riches and desire for things are toxic to the message of the kingdom. These things take over the seed, grow very fast and suck the nourishment from the soil. How many times have I had a fantastic worship experience on Sunday, been blessed by the Word of God preached in a sermon, then completely forgotten it all by Thursday because the worries of life choked it out?

Hosea 10:12 Puts a great perspective on the condition of the soil in our hearts:

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up the unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.

There is an absolute direct connection between the quality of my relationship with Jesus and how much time I spend in the Bible. Not out of work or a sense of duty, but because the Holy Spirit prepares my heart, makes it fertile ground for the message of the kingdom to take deep root and bear fruit. A tenfold crop is amazing, but God can make a 100-fold crop, bear so much more fruit than we can ask or think, if we receive the simple, small seemingly insignificant Word of God, such a tiny seed, and have our hearts prepared. Never overlook the awesome power hidden inside the message of the kingdom.

Double Tap (Numbers 20:1-13)

In Numbers chapter 20 Moses is about 120 years old. His life has had three major phases:

1) 40 years living in luxury in Egypt, basking in the wealth and wisdom of the Pharaoh's house, growing in stature and prestige.
2) 40 years in the desert as a shepherd leading up to the Exodus.
3) 40 years post-Exodus wandering the desert with the Israelites, fighting their rebellions, putting up with whining, mediating between holy God and a sinful people.

I like that there are three groups of 40, because it makes plain the sovereign hand of the Lord on his life. Since I'm a geek with math stuff, I smile thinking that God loves numbers (since He made them!) and sometimes (always?) arranges the fabric of history to make events fall into a pattern like some grand, repeating MC Escher painting:





















At the beginning of Numbers Chp 20 Moses must feel like one of the guys on this stairway. Or maybe Bill Murray in Groundhog's Day because he's faced with the Israelites' rebellion yet again, and complaints about water again and moaning about food again!

This is the car load of whiny kids, complaining because the window won't roll down far enough, and Billy ate Timmy's french fry, and Susie won't stop touching Jenny's shoe laces. Every 2 minutes somebody cries out, "When are we going to get there?" But there is no "there" to get to because the car is on a merry-go-round! Often the people are called the "children of Israel", and often the description hits the mark. But as soon as I get on my high horse about how childish they were I notice that the horse I'm riding is on the same merry-go-round and my life seems to have some of the same struggles they had.


The Grass Isn't Greener on the Other Side
In vs 4 the people were pining for the "good ol' days in Egypt.". They were wishing for those "glory years" back when they were slaves to Pharaoh, the most powerful tyrant on earth. When there was no voice of God thundering from the mountain above, instead they had the crack of the whip snapping over their heads. In Egypt they had water aplenty but no freedom to worship the Lord. They had meat, potatoes and leeks, but no animals to sacrifice in offering to their loving God. When they had to daily collect straw to make bricks instead of gathering daily manna from heaven. They had a permanent roof over their heads, a warm home, but no home for the presence of God.

The human condition is to want what we don't have. And when we get what we want, it looses value faster than a state room on the sinking Titanic. I often struggle to be grateful for what I have, rather than pouting about what I lack. I'm garuanteed to be miserable if I long more for what I don't have, rather than praise God for what I do. Because no matter how much stuff I cram into my mouth, house, garage and head there will always be far more stuff I don't have in the world.

Psalm 37:16 hits the nail on the head:

Better the little the righteous have, than the wealth of many wicked.

Double Tap
Not only were the people of Israel frustrated and rebellious with their long journey in the desert, but Moses was frustrated as well. And what follows in Numbers 20 is a passage that I struggle with in many ways. When Moses double tapped the rock with his staff to get water he was disqualified from entering the promised land because he did not "trust God enough to honor as holy". Immediately my hackles get raised because Moses served God 40 long years in the desert. This seems way too harsh, unfair, and on the surface rather ticky-tacky. Shouldn't God cut Moses some slack here?

Deuteronomy 34:10-12 enshrined Moses as the greatest prophet and servant of God for all time, but that is still not enough!!! Read this and ponder that Moses still failed to enter the promised land:

Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

But this reflects a sad truth of our fallen, sinful condition: our mighty power and awesome deeds aren't enough to merit entrance into the eternal promised land of God's kingdom. The awful potency of our least sin, is enough to taint the full body of our best work. Or, as the saying goes, it only takes one tiny spider leg to spoil a perfectly good soup.

The details of the "double tap" are revealing and help explain what's happening in this episode.

After the Israelites gathered (again!) to complain (again!) about the lack of water (again!), Moses and Aaron sought the Lord (again!) to get instruction. Vs 6 says that Moses left the assembly to go to the Tent of Meeting. Bearing in mind that Moses showed a lack of trust and honor for the Lord, I picture him storming away from the assembly. Stomping his feet to the Tent of Meeting. Yes, he fell facedown before the Lord, but I imagine that Moses' fists were balled up tight, teeth clenched, small puffs of steam popping out his ears. Moses had every legitimate right to be angry. But this anger did not subside, even in vs 6 where the "glory of the Lord appeared."

In vs 8, the Lord told Moses to "speak to the rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water."

Sometimes God brings us back to the same place of suffering time and time again because we don't learn to trust Him, or honor Him as holy, or obey Him. Sometimes we bring ourselves to the same place for the same reasons. God puts us on Escher's staircase to bring us back to a familiar place of suffering so we can learn an important lesson we missed the first time (or second, or third).

But even when soaking in the glory of the Lord at the Tent of Meeting, Moses is still just ticked off. So in anger he grabs the staff from the presence of the Lord (vs 9). This is big mistake #1. This wasn't any old staff, some random stick. It was THE staff. Moses took the staff that God made miraculously sprout almonds to prove that the line of Aaron was chosen for the priesthood (Numbers 17). This staff was holy, set aside in God's presence, special. I imagine Moses yanking it from the Tent of Meeting like it was some billy club and stomping out to crack skulls. This is like using the Stanley Cup trophy for a punch bowl at the 8th grade dance. Or using the Shroud of Turin as a quicker picker upper for spilled pork chop grease. God instructed Moses to take the staff, but I believe that Moses was seeing red at the time.

Moses gathered the Israelites after leaving God's presence, and I picture him holding the staff white knuckled, smacking his hand a few times, wishing he could smack somebody in the crowd. Mo had the fire in the belly after 40 years wandering the desert. And when the Israelites assembled, I imagine he had to yell above the murmuring complaints. He probably saw their eyes roll. They were camping at Kadesh and, like Escher's staircase, they had been there before. The last recorded time was when the people rebelled against Moses and almost killed Caleb and Joshua son of Nun for delivering a good report about the promised land. Was he hitting his hand with the staff, remembering the rebellion? I think so. The Bible says in vs 10-11:

He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

Again, God told Moses to speak to the rock, but instead he goes Chuck Norris with the sacred staff and whacks the rock two times!! This is like stealing Babe Ruth's bat from the Hall of Fame to pound fence posts for the new dog run in your back yard.

Moses did not honor God as holy. He used an opportunity to serve and miraculously provide for the chosen people to exercise his fierce anger. This might have been a scene instead where Moses could point to the holy, living God then speak to the rock and glorify God for His provision. But when he uses God's power as a moment to poke the people in the eyes God cancelled Moses' ticket to the promised land.

I still struggle with this, but that likely means that I still don't fully appreciate what it means to honor God as holy. It shows I devalue the currency of trusting God. My pride still cries out that if I do a bunch of great stuff for God, then I'm entitled to all of the promises. Yet this negates the grace of God which qualifies me for the full blessing of the kingdom based on faith. Moses failed to enter the promised land on the basis of the Mosaic Law when he violated the third commandment and profaned the name and character of God in a sense by his anger. So if Moses can't fully obey the Mosaic law, then who can? Nobody.

And maybe that is exactly the point. It drives us to the saving grace of Jesus and makes us cling to the cross tighter than Moses clung to the staff that he used to hit the rock.

40 days: Jesus follows Moses' fast

During Jesus' 40 day fast in the wilderness he was constantly tempted by Satan (MT 4:1-11, Lk 4:1-13, Mk 1:12-13)

He rebukes Satan's temptations by quoting from Deuteronomy.

1) Man does not live on bread alone. Deut 8:3
2) Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Deut 6:3
3) Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Deut 6:16

I'm intrigued to think of the hours Jesus spent studying scripture before his ministry began. Likely there were only a few copies of the Torah in Nazareth, and it wasn't sitting on his bedside or on his iPhone. Likely he needed to go to the tabernacle for his study. After a long day's work in his carpentry shop, dirty and sweaty from the labor. Or early in the morning, tired and sore from yesterday's toil. Because Jesus emptied himself of his divine power in becoming a man (in a sense) he had to learn Scripture the same way we do: years of study, meditation, memorization, prayer, and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was led by the Spirit to the wilderness. Did Jesus know he would be there 40 days?! The parallels between Jesus and Moses are striking and not coincidental. In Deut 9: 18-29 Moses describes his 40 day fast before the Lord on the mountain interceding for Israel so God wouldn't destroy them because of their rebellion and sin. While the proverbial ink was still drying on the 10 commandments God wrote with his own hand (Deut 9:10) Israel was crafting and worshipping a golden calf idol. God's anger was enough to bring Him to the brink of blotting out their names from under heaven (Deut 9:14).

But Moses put himself between the people and the wrath of God, pleading, mediating, interceding for 40 days and 40 nights for them to be spared. And they were. The work of one mediator saved a whole nation.

Jesus' life, death and resurrection served the same role. The work of one man made salvation possible for the whole world. He stood between God's wrath and the sins of all people, everywhere for all time.

I think that Jesus' 40 day fasting in the wilderness must have included truckloads of intercession for a fallen world, as Moses interceded 40 days for the rebellious, fallen nation of Israel.

And because Jesus mediated between God and Man, we have the sure hope of heaven.

Applications:

1) How often do I labor in prayer for the fallen people around me? My friends, family and co-workers? How much have I fasted on their behalf, pleading with the Father for mercy? Right now, praying even 40 minutes for the eternal soul for somebody I love is a stretch. If I'm honest, most prayers last closer to 40 seconds. On a "good day". And prayers for my enemies would mostly be clocked under 40 milliseconds.

2) In my hour of temptation, I need to have the Word of God firmly planted in my mind and heart. Like Jesus, I need to feast on the Word each day as a store of energy for the times when I'm starving in the wilderness.

Greatest. Pep-talk. Evah.

After wandering in the desert for 40 years, the book of Deuteronomy records an amazing speech given by Moses to the people as they are finally poised to enter the promised land.

Moses makes a Vince Lombardi speech seem in comparison like a speech class final presentation gone horribly wrong. This is especially remarkable because when God first called Moses at the burning bush, he thought at the most he was an ineloquent babbler (Exodus 4:10).

While Deuteronomy spans 34 chapters, the essence and heart of his speech is summed up in Deut 7:6-12. In fact, this is a great summary of practically God's entire dealing with Israel in the whole OT:

6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. 10 But

those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction;
he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.

11 Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.

12 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors.

The pep-talk was absolutely needed, because Israel had just come off a 40 year loosing streak wandering the desert. A season marked by rebellion, complaining, fear, faithlessness, smiting from God of various sorts, fumbles, interceptions, blow-outs, shut-outs, missed field goals, dropped passes, and sacks. Israel was "0-for". Deut chp 9 is the pathetic scouting report of Israel's 40 years, explicitly stating that taking possession of the promised land had nothing to do with the righteousness of Israel (Deut 9:4-6). To the contrary, Moses brings out the laundry list of their failures, and vs 7-29 reads like a rap sheet:

--provocation of the Lord (vs 7, 18)
--rebellion (vs 7, 23, 24)
--wrath-arousing (vs 8)
--idolatry (vs 12)
--sin (vs 16, 18, 21)
--evil deeds (18)
--wickedness (vs 27)
--stubbornness (vs 27)

Many times both Moses and God call them a stiff-necked people (vs 6, 13) which is a great quality for a linebacker, but not so much for the chosen people of God.

[An important aside: before we proudly say to ourselves, "Glad I'm not like them" remember that Jesus suffered and died for our sin and rebellion too. Our own necks can be stiffer than a Louisville Slugger.]

Nevertheless, Moses is pumping them up because now it's time to cross the river Jordan, enter the promised land, and conquer 7 nations that are "larger and stronger" than Israel (Deut 7:1). They have "large cities with walls up to the sky" and the people are Anakites (picture Mixed Martial Arts monsters jacked up on 'roids! Deut 9:1-2).

This is the Sedro-Woolley little league Pop Warner C Team taking on the Yankees. At Yankee Field.

Except for one thing, God Almighty is playing for Sedro. Check out Jehovah's Topps baseball card:

Batting average: 1.000
Pitching earned run average: 0.00
Fielding errors: 0
Missed games: 0
Strike outs: 0
Home runs: each swing of the bat
Years played in the majors: all eternity past, present and future.
Steroid allegations: 0

Moses knew that if the Israelites kept the Lord on their team, they would be undefeated. By being faithful to the commands and covenant with God, they would be wildly successful in battle (Deut 7:17-24), blessed with large families, fruitful in their crops and animals, free of disease, showered with material blessings, and soaked in God's love (vs 13-15).

Moses' battle cry to rouse the Israelites against their enemies rings out in Deut 7:21, 24

Do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God... No one will be able to stand up against you. You will destroy them.

The same principle applies to Christians today. Our enemies, both the Prince of this world and our sin nature, are seemingly insurmountable. At times it appears we are greatly overmatched. But in Romans 8:31-39, Paul delivers an epic halftime locker room talk that mirrors the one by Moses. This just rocks:

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[a]

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The key thing to remember is that we do not prevail by our own strength, effort, or work. Jesus is the one who gave 110%. Jesus left it all out on the field. By His blood, sweat and tears we earn the victory. At the end of the day, He gets handed the game ball and all the glory. In fact, he's already won. We just get taken along for the ride in the victory parade.

Alright, everybody huddle up, hands in together. On three....ONE, TWO, THREE! DO THIS THING!!!!!!